GLOW is for the way we lead our world

         Last week we gathered girls that were as young as 10 up to 15 years old to come together, become friends, and learn a little more about what it means to be leaders in their communities. The camp is called GLOW camp which means Girls Leading Our World. It is important to know that Ghana is still in the true meaning of the term a developing country but honestly it is much more developed then I thought it would be before arriving here for my 2 years.  With the new age internet cell phones and texting it seems like we are in America. I think that it is even more important to educate young girls in this development stage because they can see women that have already made it to important powerful jobs. There are many role models for these girls to look up to but it is still a struggle for most of them to finish education up to the senior secondary school (high school). There are countless obstacles that they face day to day. Most families do some sort of farming which somehow seems to always interfere with exams and studying for the end term.  Along with pressure from the family to help around the house and farm it is social pressures from the community that tell the girls that they won’t make it and t just stay at home, then there are the boys that only encourage the communities perspective and try to take advantage of stressed out confused young ladies. 

        In our communities was having a unique opportunity to get to know young girls that have that extra something special. These girls already have it in their mind that they are going to do and be something great and are optimistic to make it happen.  So we bring these girls together for three full days of leadership, education, and fun activities. We brought in speakers to talk to the girls about women leaders in Ghana, a nurse to speak on feminine care and family planning, and an inspirational woman that works for Peace Corps to share personal stories, the struggles and the triumphs.  The PCVs that were involved also lead sessions on HIV/AIDS awareness, education, and stigma reduction. A session was also dedicated to malaria prevention where we showed the girls how to use bed nets properly and taught facts about the disease.

        My favorite parts of the camp were when we were filling time or doing craft activities. The young leaders learned how to tie-dye, which in my eyes is a very important leadership quality. They also learned how to make “gods eyes” the yarn and stick craft, and they absolutely loved making water sachet coin purses. For a more educational craft project we taught them how to track their period and fertility on bracelets made from different colored beads.  It might not be a craft activity but we did some science experiments with the girls including the baking soda balloon experiment and telling if a egg is hard boiled or not and a talk on robots. It was important to show the girls that science can be fun and applicable. Many of the girls that came to the camp are in the focus of home economics in school (its kinda like a major but in high school) so even getting a little bit more interest in the sciences could really help them in school.

        You might have seen on my facebook page photos of people falling onto other people. This was our attempt at teaching the trust fall concept. We wanted to get a feeling of trust throughout the girls on the first day to carry throughout the camp so we started with the partner trust fall and once the girls got the concept we moved on to the scary chair trust fall. This was definitely more difficult for the girls to do. The trust was not there at first. They kept sticking their butts down first and trying to sit on the girls catching. The concept of keeping strait the whole time and arms by your side was hard to grasp so a PCV had to show them a couple times and they started to get it.  Along with the theme of trust we also wanted to incorporate teamwork.  The perfect game for that is the human knot. It is only possible to untie the knot if everybody works together because everybody has a different perspective on the knot it’s difficult to have only one person doing all the action and by working together you can see their personalities coming out and taking shape. 

         I really think that this camp went well. We had a couple of break throughs with the girls that warmed our hearts as well as made us want to help even more. The girls really became friends throughout the groups and not just in their school groups which hopefully they learned a little something from each other. We had three deaf girls come from Tema with a Volunteer that teaches them art and learned so much from them. Not only did they teach us a little sign language but how to interact with each other on another level. These girls were so animated with their facial expressions that you knew exactly what they were thinking.  I think a great moment for all the volunteers there was when they received a prize at the end for remembering the volunteers name signs not only did she remember our signs from the first day but she was so so happy to get a cool prize and the smile on her face was the most beautiful smile.  

        Even though I think we were all happy that the stress of planning and putting on this camp was over at the end we all had a blast and made some great memories.  Already we have to start thinking of ways to make next year better and keep all the good stuff. It will be a tough one to top but hey we are the eastern region we can definitely do it!

Busy busy wirlwind

Oh man I dint realize April was such a long month! I have not had a full week or for that matter, a weekend to myself. This is such a difference from every other month Ive been at site. I have posted about reconnect, after that I traveled for Easter then AllVol, then my week was taken up by meeting the new trainees for wat/san telling them a little about FSAC (food security action committee), to finish up we had our eastern region GLOW camp (girls leading out world) and the last week will be recuperating from the month. I have lots of things to check on now that I'm back at site for awhile.

The tree nursery is starting to move forward nicely. We have filled 5000 polybags with dirt and compost. John, the man taking care of it has planted seeds and are soon to be transplanting into the bags. I need to work on getting more species from the forestry department that will be suitable for reforesting the river. I also want to get some more citrus trees out there because bees really like citrus flowers, which leads to the fact that I really want to get a hive out there. I want to be able to learn how to keep bees as well as have an active hive to train farmers on if they are interested in doing so.

New Agriculture volunteers are coming in October. It’s still a long way off but I need to get some sites around me developed soon so I can get some buddies. I really think this area can benefit from agriculture volunteers that are going to do similar things as me (landless projects/ alternative livelihood). Personally I think it is what Peace Corps is all about. Little things to help increase the development of the community have the largest impact, it’s sustainable because it’s a few smaller projects instead of one big one.

Jata, my puppy is getting bigger and along with that she eats more but pees less! She is starting to sleep in my room because she can hold it the whole night but just like Daisey my pup back home she likes to wake me up early and get petted. I will take her to the vet soon to get rabies shot but I still need to research how to get her fixed in this crazy country that doesn’t really care about pets or controlling canine or feline populations. 

Now that I am pretty settled in my home here I am realizing little improvements that would make life easier. I would like to make a shelf for my desk so I can get all my supplies out of a USPS box.  I also need to make a large shelf with plastic bins to store things so ants and mouse poop doesn’t get on them.  I have added some things to my walls as decorations so my room actually looks fun now! Oh and my awesome mother sent some chalkboard paint to me so I need to make a plan to where I'm going to use it!  So excited!

I haven’t really returned to the bead office since leaving for reconnect except for a few days before allvol to gather things to sell but I'm still trying to get them to put things on-line for sale overseas. The thing that is slowing the process down is that the head of the NGO is so busy trying to finish the new office site. They build very differently here, save a little, build a little until funds run out then save again, not the most efficient. So that is actually getting in the way of the beads project as well as the landless farmers project. But don’t worry its coming…

During this month the popular question for the group that is leaving soon is “so what’s next?” and being a new volunteer it’s already a scary thing to think about. Conveniently for the group leaving they can take the GRE back home with plenty of time to apply and relax. The timing of my group is a little off making it necessary to take the GRE here in Ghana and apply to schools before we leave country in December and fiddle around until the fallowing September. As it turns out taking the GRE here isn’t bad, quite a few people have done it and said it all worked fine.  So this kind of stuff is also in the back of my head.

Reconnecting

I have just got back to site from our reconnect IST. We are told to stay at our site for three months and integrate into our communities. During this time we don’t do much at all. Lots of reading lots of sitting lots of thinking. We are supposed to get an idea of what we want to do with our communities, projects that they will be invested in or at least have a slight persistent interest. I have it slightly better than some because of the fact that I am working with an NGO that is already set up and running pretty smoothly. This puts me in a good position because they are already doing things without my push or money. But this also means that I am having trouble starting my own projects because they already have an agenda which I might say is very good I just need to get in it somehow.

The first couple days back at site were a mixture of good feelings about the coming months with lots of ideas, the realization that it will all come slowly, and the fact that once again I am the only blafono around and I don’t have that buffer of all my NRM (now Agriculture, we’ll get into that later) peeps around me to hang out with. Luckily I am rather busy this month and am at site only for the weeks but busy on the weekends. First its Easter adventures then its AllVol then its GLOW camp. I'm so excited to be participating in PC things but it seems like things with the farmers are picking up as well. Next week is going to be crazy because I will have people over to look at beads Tuesday, Wednesday we will train farmers interested in bee keeping I will miss the Thursday section because of Warden training for the Eastern Region I will also be missing the bead market where we had planned to get matching beads for the two yard tribe! I know I won’t miss much it’s just I want to show my support and interest because I want the beekeeping project to succeed.

The new training/office site that my supervisor is so busy working on is coming slowly but has had a push for completion because the beads office rent contract will expire soon. I really hope that it will be finished soon because it is effecting our project in that there is no more room for chickens in the current house, literally they now have to be kept in Emmanuel’s house… his wife is not so happy about that. There are so many little things that I want to do with the new office like plant Vetiver grass, connect with the school that’s near, garden around the building, compost, and I’m sure there’s lots more!

On a more personal note I think this month will be good for me because I need a little boost in the motivation department. I have started to feel a bit lazy and just been rolling with things which has been working for me but I think it’s time to kick into gear.  I promise not to go crazy I just want to put some real effort into something. I think this is stemming from the IST where we actually had to think for the first time in three months! So once I started thinking I realized I wasn’t thinking and needed to start thinking. A big trigger word for PC is sustainable, we need to do sustainable projects that the communities want and will keep going long after we leave. I am trying to understand what that means for my future as a PC volunteer and as a volunteer for Krobodan specifically. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew but I want to push myself to do something creative and worthwhile. It cant be something too crazy that the community rejects the project but just crazy enough to get attention.

So to sum up, there are a lot of things going on in my head, mostly good. I am definitely becoming more comfortable with my living situation and my “job” and learning how to deal with people. I am still working to put my ideas in motion but with only 4 months at site I think I'm in a good place.

Until next time

Live in Love

Re-evaluation not a step back a step forward

Well another month down and man it was quite a month. I got my puppy Jata, I got sat on by a crazy lady, I received numerous marriage proposals from my delightful farmers, packed jewelry for hours, I rearranged my kitchen, I was really broke for a week and towards the end I hit a point in my experience that has made me stop a rethink things a bit. 

I think throughout this experience you are continuously learning about yourself and what it means to be yourself in a new place. You have to take all things into consideration, the facts are I’m a woman, I’m trying to help farmers, the other volunteers I know are over 3 hours away from me most are over 5 hours, my living situation is odd for Peace Corps and my personality, the way I was raised is very different from the Ghanaian norm. I am very independent and am very good at taking care of myself and usually good at filling my time with being outside, doing projects, or hanging out with friends. 

 But recently I have had a hard time filling that time. Being outside means constantly having to respond to kids and adults yelling “obruni”/ ”blafono” at me and expecting me to respond in some fashion. I get tired of yelling “ah che me Abiekey, ah che me wi obruni/blafono”. The Krobo people are very loud and persistent in their need for my attention. This is part of my struggle living in a larger town. I cant connect with everybody, ive tried, most kids that I walk by know my name, but Nkurakan is larger than you would think and since it is so close to Koforidua there are many visitors that think its so great that an Obruni is living here.

To fill my time I have been helping out at the bead office but honestly I’m kind of over it. They are very well off, got the finances in order, they have a process for producing and shipping off. I am just an extra set of hands. I’m ready to start my assigned work, working in the field with farmers. And that is just what I’ve decided to make happen. The NGO that I’m supposed to work with is setting up a training facility that will centralize efforts to train farmers in the district, its coming slower than expected. When it is up and going there will be many things happening which means theoretically I’ll be busy but who knows! So I have decided to try to meet some local craftsmen and women that make Kente cloth and clothing. I also want to start looking into starting some programs at local schools if only to say hi once in a while! I have to remember that I have only been at site for two months and I can’t get ahead of myself here things take a long time to happen.  I think this is something that most peace corps volunteers relies it we just all take different routes. I started when I first arrived at site with the holidays it was a matter of waiting until people went back to work, back to school, back to normal. Now that I am settled in my place I actually am motivated to start projects but it’s still a matter of waiting for the NGO to get their act together.

At the end of this month I do believe things will start to happen with the NGO and with Peace Corps events. Until then I will pursue my own motives and to keep trying to push my own boundaries by meeting new people and learning new things. I’m liking this step back, readjusting my outlook. It’s needed, I had high expectations of getting to work like most new volunteers, eager to start projects and make progress, but that’s just not the way things work here even with all the gumption in the world. Don’t get me wrong I still have high expectations for my time here I have just readjusted the timeline.

Just the other day I met a man that keeps bees in the village after my community and this weekend I took it upon myself to visit him. He was of course at a funeral (it was a Saturday), but I only had to wait a little bit for him to show up and give me a little tour of his farm. He uses boxed with wires for the hives and not the standard top bar that you see most often here. He even opened one up for me to peek inside although he was sure I would run away, nope not me. He also has a cocoa nursery going and is joining as an association soon. I don’t want to get into cocoa at all but he was mighty proud of it! He kept saying how he was getting to be old and wanted more bee hives because they are easy and can produce easy profit for him. Things like this that I hope will fall into place as I start working with farmers.

So it is now time for me to head home for dinner which I think will be banku or kinkey with tomato and onion sauce. My favorite! I’m sure Jata will be anxious to play around and for me to clean up after her! The joys of having a puppy!

Until next time,

Live in love

How to act out first aid.

Last week I got to observe a workshop Krobodan is putting on for the farmers in the district. The topics are; National Health Insurance, First Aid, Civil Society Concept, and Leadership in the community groups. I cannot pick up on much Krobo at all so trying to fallow the ideas is really hard. When the First aid presenter came up I was interested to see the similarities and differences between Red Cross Ghana and the American Red Cross. It was so much easier to fallow because he literally acted out everything! He had a fake stroke, nearly choked to death, and I think at one point he pretended to stab himself in the eye. He would then go about fixing the problem while acting it out and explaining. CPR had a  surprisingly similar technique and was even demonstrated on white manikins.

Its always an interesting day when I go to see the farmers. There is always at least one really drunk farmer that everybody tries to ignore but cant because he is so loud. So far there is two that are notorious for demonstrating their ability to drink. For the ones that make things difficult there is always a couple that make everything better. After shooing away one of the drunks while trying to eat lunch two farmers that I haven’t seen before came over to introduce and chat. They were so nice and proceeded to try to teach me a bit of Krobo, I'm not a very good on the spot learner, I need to write things down especially when there are sounds that I cant even picture. The word for water is nyuo which sounds like the twi nyum meaning music (I'm even worse at spelling in foreign languages), really confusing. But that is the one thing that I remember, slowly learning.

Next week we will have the same workshop for another set of farmers, so I can only imagine what will happen!

Let the rains begin… Please!

Today was the first large rain of the season. You could hear it coming from miles away, the low rumbling, the wind picking up, and the sky darkening, all tell tale signs of rain. It has been trying to rain for the past couple days but this afternoon the sky opened and it poured cats and dogs. I had to run out to the line and make sure I collected all my clothes in time and then it started, it was light at first but grew to be a downpour. In true northwest fashion I was out there just standing enjoying the rain and all it brings with it. The kids were in the house can came out to stare at their crazy American standing in the rain. With only a tiny bit of coaxing I got Jemimah to come join in the puddle jumping, Francesca was out there right from the beginning and loving it! Since there is no grass and the dirt got so slippery she decided to just slide around on her butt, so proud. The mamma wasn’t home and I don’t think we would have gotten to play if she was there. After about 20 min of playing in the rain the girls got cold and wanted to warm up. I rung out my freshly rinsed hair and made us some warm Milo and tea.

It is these days that I am so happy to be here experiencing these moments of joy. Someday are harder than others but Im always looking forward to these special days where it all comes together in a happy moment.